Class of 2017
Bedford County Sports Hall of Fame
Bedford County Sports Hall of Fame
Bedford County, Pennsylvania
Bedford County, Pennsylvania
Meyer KO Christner
By 1929, Meyer “K.O.” Christner was ranked among the top 12 heavyweights contenders for the world boxing championship.
This was during what sports historians refer to as the “Golden
Age of Boxing” in the Roaring 20’s. This was the era of Jack Dempsey, Gene Tunney, Jack Sharkey, Primo Carnera, and young Max Schmeling.
In 1894, Meyer Christner was born to son of a B&O railroad
conductor in Garrett in Somerset County. The family moved to Hyndman, which at the time was a thriving railroad town that was
bisected by both the B&O Railroad and the Pennsylvania Railroad.
When the family moved back to Garrett, the elder Christner sent his wayward son off to St. Mary’s Industrial School in Baltimore, where he shared a dorm room and was a teammate of George Herman “Babe” Ruth. Christner was the catcher for Ruth on the baseball team.
After school, Christner joined the army and was stationed in
Texas near the Mexican border. He wound up in “Black Jack” Pershing’s infantry command when President Woodrow Wilson sent the army into Mexico to capture the infamous bandito, Pancho Villa.
After his army stint, Christner married the daughter of a Texas cattle rancher and moved back to Somerset County to work in the coal mines with one of his siblings. From there, he moved to a better paying job in the tire plants in Akron, Ohio.
During that time frame, Christner played semi-pro football. Some reports have him playing for the Akron Goodyear Silents, while others say it was the Akron Indians.
He also played semi-professional baseball, as a catcher, around the Akron area.
Christner unofficially launched his boxing career when he got into an altercation with a co-worker at the Firestone tire plant. Tire plants in the area sponsored “smokers” for aspiring fighters in the area.
Christner quickly garnered regional acclaim and a new nickname “K.O.”
At the ripe old age of 30, the brawny, rubber-pit worker with the dynamite right hand began to make a name for himself.
“Christner had over 250 fights over the years, 45 of them in one year! He won 210 of his bouts, the majority by knock-outs,” said J. Suter Kegg of the Cumberland Times-News.
In Christner’s first 37 fights, he had 32 knockouts. By 1928, he was climbing the national boxing ladder rankings and was considered the top light-heavyweight in the Midwest.
His career took off on December 4, 1928, when he knocked out Knute Hansen, the Danish champion, at Public Hall in Cleveland. With Dempsey in semi-retirement and Tunney hanging up his gloves, the way was paved for a new champion to be crowned in New York City at Madison Square Garden, promoted by the Don King of the 1920, Tex
Rickard.
On January 25, 1929, Christner crawled through the ropes to face Jack Sharkey for all the marbles in front of a packed house. The New York Times and Associated Press writers agreed that Christner had Sharkey beat through the first six rounds. The referee Jack Dunning pushed, tugged, scolded, warned, and threatened Christner through the final three and a half rounds. Sharkey, the big favorite, ended up winning a controversial decision. Christner broke his feared right hand, and he broke it again two more times in his career.
Christner continued his career but refined his style, going from a stand-up slugger to a more polished boxer.
Akron Journal sportswriter Jim Schlemmer said this of Christner’s record toward the end of his career in 1932: “In the last two years, K.O. Christner has fought every outstanding heavyweight in the game and is still going strong. He’s met Sharkey, Paulino, (Johnny) Risko, (Primo) Carnera, (Max) Baer, Stribling, (Obie) Walker, (Jim) Maloney, and all the rest, and the other night when he practically belted Emmitt Rocco out of the ring, K.O was 36 years old! I saw his birth certificate that read ... born in Garrett, Pa. in 1894!”
By 1933, most of K.O.’s fights were in the far west, particularly in California, Arizona, and Nevada.
Christner retired from the ring after his fight with “Tiger” Fox on December 18, 1933, in Salt Lake City.
He and his wife Buddy eventually moved back to his relatives in Garrett and Hyndman. They owned and operated Capital Bowling Lanes on Virginia Avenue in Cumberland from 1945 to 1960.
By the time Christner died on October 29, 1979, he was totally
blind, likely from the extensive eye damage suffered during his amazing boxing career.
He and Buddy are buried in the Northlawn Cemetery, which is north of Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio.
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By 1929, Meyer “K.O.” Christner was ranked among the top 12 heavyweights contenders for the world boxing championship.
This was during what sports historians refer to as the “Golden
Age of Boxing” in the Roaring 20’s. This was the era of Jack Dempsey, Gene Tunney, Jack Sharkey, Primo Carnera, and young Max Schmeling.
In 1894, Meyer Christner was born to son of a B&O railroad
conductor in Garrett in Somerset County. The family moved to Hyndman, which at the time was a thriving railroad town that was
bisected by both the B&O Railroad and the Pennsylvania Railroad.
When the family moved back to Garrett, the elder Christner sent his wayward son off to St. Mary’s Industrial School in Baltimore, where he shared a dorm room and was a teammate of George Herman “Babe” Ruth. Christner was the catcher for Ruth on the baseball team.
After school, Christner joined the army and was stationed in
Texas near the Mexican border. He wound up in “Black Jack” Pershing’s infantry command when President Woodrow Wilson sent the army into Mexico to capture the infamous bandito, Pancho Villa.
After his army stint, Christner married the daughter of a Texas cattle rancher and moved back to Somerset County to work in the coal mines with one of his siblings. From there, he moved to a better paying job in the tire plants in Akron, Ohio.
During that time frame, Christner played semi-pro football. Some reports have him playing for the Akron Goodyear Silents, while others say it was the Akron Indians.
He also played semi-professional baseball, as a catcher, around the Akron area.
Christner unofficially launched his boxing career when he got into an altercation with a co-worker at the Firestone tire plant. Tire plants in the area sponsored “smokers” for aspiring fighters in the area.
Christner quickly garnered regional acclaim and a new nickname “K.O.”
At the ripe old age of 30, the brawny, rubber-pit worker with the dynamite right hand began to make a name for himself.
“Christner had over 250 fights over the years, 45 of them in one year! He won 210 of his bouts, the majority by knock-outs,” said J. Suter Kegg of the Cumberland Times-News.
In Christner’s first 37 fights, he had 32 knockouts. By 1928, he was climbing the national boxing ladder rankings and was considered the top light-heavyweight in the Midwest.
His career took off on December 4, 1928, when he knocked out Knute Hansen, the Danish champion, at Public Hall in Cleveland. With Dempsey in semi-retirement and Tunney hanging up his gloves, the way was paved for a new champion to be crowned in New York City at Madison Square Garden, promoted by the Don King of the 1920, Tex
Rickard.
On January 25, 1929, Christner crawled through the ropes to face Jack Sharkey for all the marbles in front of a packed house. The New York Times and Associated Press writers agreed that Christner had Sharkey beat through the first six rounds. The referee Jack Dunning pushed, tugged, scolded, warned, and threatened Christner through the final three and a half rounds. Sharkey, the big favorite, ended up winning a controversial decision. Christner broke his feared right hand, and he broke it again two more times in his career.
Christner continued his career but refined his style, going from a stand-up slugger to a more polished boxer.
Akron Journal sportswriter Jim Schlemmer said this of Christner’s record toward the end of his career in 1932: “In the last two years, K.O. Christner has fought every outstanding heavyweight in the game and is still going strong. He’s met Sharkey, Paulino, (Johnny) Risko, (Primo) Carnera, (Max) Baer, Stribling, (Obie) Walker, (Jim) Maloney, and all the rest, and the other night when he practically belted Emmitt Rocco out of the ring, K.O was 36 years old! I saw his birth certificate that read ... born in Garrett, Pa. in 1894!”
By 1933, most of K.O.’s fights were in the far west, particularly in California, Arizona, and Nevada.
Christner retired from the ring after his fight with “Tiger” Fox on December 18, 1933, in Salt Lake City.
He and his wife Buddy eventually moved back to his relatives in Garrett and Hyndman. They owned and operated Capital Bowling Lanes on Virginia Avenue in Cumberland from 1945 to 1960.
By the time Christner died on October 29, 1979, he was totally
blind, likely from the extensive eye damage suffered during his amazing boxing career.
He and Buddy are buried in the Northlawn Cemetery, which is north of Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio.
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Bedford County Sports Hall of Fame
Bedford County, Pennsylvania
Bedford County, Pennsylvania
Class of 2017